Toyota issues quirky patent for shape-shifting body flying car

The dream of a flying car is currently exactly that… a dream. But Toyota aims to change that using a recent patent that presents a body with a flexible frame and a rear-mounted propeller.

The Japanese automaker has been recently spied issuing a patent for a transforming flying car, and this vehicle might be more than it meets the eye. The wings will not be folded to the side of the body like in other concepts, instead integrating them into the fuselage when not in use. In order to make that happen, the rear part of the vehicle would make use of flexible sections that can also be covered. When the owner wants to transition from driving to flight, the movable panels will reveal the unfurling wings. This is an ingenious concept, and we can give Toyota credit for it since they’re also the recent authors of an electric wooden car.

More so, the patent discusses three ways of hiding the wings inside the fuselage and delivering the deployment techniques for them. In one version, the flexible sections can be contracted. In another they can be expanded, and regardless of the method the company reaches towards a streamlined body with the wings hidden. Toyota first filed the patent back in December 2014, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office published it this month. In the mean time, the flying car segment has been swelling with developing ideas – including Google co-founder Larry Page being interested in the sector.